Product Description

Product Description

Antonio Banderas (SPY KIDS) brings huge star power to an immensely thrilling action-adventure from the hit-making director of DIE HARD and THE THOMAS CROWN AFFAIR! An exiled ambassador far from his homeland, Ahmed (Banderas) comes across a fierce band of warriors who are being attacked by ferocious creatures legendary for devouring all living things in their path! And when an old fortune-teller warns the combatants that they are doomed to failure without a 13th warrior, Ahmed is given no choice but to join their battle and help conquer the mysterious enemy! Suspenseful and endlessly exciting, this exhilarating hit is sure to thrill anyone who enjoys action on an epic scale!

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What happened to The 13th Warrior? Directed by John McTiernan (Die Hard), it's the tale of young Arab ambassador Ahmahd ibn Fahdalan (Antonio Banderas), who's vanquished from his homeland for loving the wrong woman. On his journeys he associates with a ragtag group of Vikings who are traveling back to their homeland to confront a nefarious threat that's cloaked in such superstition they're forbidden to speak its name. It is prophesied by a witch doctor that 13 warriors must confront the evil; however, the 13th chosen man must not come from the north. Suddenly Banderas is forced into the breach, somewhat against his will. More poet than battle-worn warrior, he must not only fight the aggressors but come to terms with the unfamiliar Norse culture. What follows is a vigorous and brutal adventure reminiscent of Kurosawa's Seven Samurai. Sumptuous and invigorating battle sequences fill the screen from beginning to end as the brave Norsemen battle insurmountable odds.

Sounds good. So why did this film, once known as the Eaters of the Dead, sit on studio shelves for two years? Presumably because of the thoughtless editing that trimmed down the film to its bare bones, crafting an actionfest out of an epic. It's not often that you crave for a movie to be longer, but The 13th Warrior could've benefited from fleshing out of its subplots and characters. On the surface it's good eye candy with some fine pulse-quickening moments, and Banderas and the accompanying cast turn in sympathetic performances, epitomizing camaraderie in the face of impending doom. However, if you're looking for a good thematic tale from the Dark Ages (akin to Braveheart), you may be disappointed. --Jeremy Storey

Most helpful customer reviews

I found The 13th Warrior to be a highly satisfying experience in retelling the story of "Beowulf."I have always been fascinated by the fact that Vikings had travelled all the way to Constantinople/Istanbul well before 800 A.D. That the Byzantine Emperor's Varangian guard was composed entirely of Norsemen. That great cultures --- such as the Middle Eastern Muslims and European Christians --- managed to rub elbows and coexist (more or less) harmoniously for centuries. (This is something that Islamists want us to forget.)In "The 13th Warrior," an Islamic Arabian diplomat joins a band of Viking warriors as they travel to northern Europe to aid a king. The king is plagued by flesh-eaters, and thus the story of the Anglo-Saxon epic, "Beowulf," is retold through the sensibility of the Arab narrator.Is the armour utterly authentic to this period? Nope! Fifteenth-century plate armour sticks out like the proverbial sore thumb. *But*... does this film capture the character of Norse and Anglo-Saxon warriors? Yes, plus it captures the feral qualities of some of the tribes who fought with the Norsemen. (I kept thinking of ancient Celts, who collected severed heads, as I saw the flesh-eaters of this film.)"The 13th Warrior" is an unusual, thinking-person's epic with more to offer than the typical blood-and-guts sword-fight film.

The idea of a culture clash between Moslem and Scandinavian civilizations is nothing new. "The Longships" with Sidney Poitier and Richard Widmark covered a lot of the same ground, even though it was campy and ridiculous. However, as laughable as The Longships was, it was actually a better movie and (believe it or not) more historically accurate! That's pretty sad.Back in the 10th century, Ibn Fadlan (a real person) wrote an account of a Viking funeral he witnessed. In the 6th century, there was a Geatish hero named Beowulf (who was probably a real person: his uncle Hygelac was definitely real) who slew two ogres (Grendel and his mother) who stormed a king's hall and ate the inhabitants. Beowulf later became a king in his own right, but was killed by a dragon, but not before he slew the beast. Michael Crichton melded the two stories (in spite of the 400-year time span -no big deal) and in order to make it more plausible, changed Grendel and his mother into the "Vendol", a group of late-surviving Neanderthals who had had superhuman strength (Neanderthals were MUCH stronger than homo sapiens) and domesticated ponies. Crichton also changed the fire-breathing dragon into a column of torch-wielding horsemen. These ideas are so original and intriguing that I for one thought it would be nearly impossible to screw up even if the book was rather lame. It's a truism that bad books make better movies than good ones. Crichton and John McTiernan proved that a bad book can make a bad movie, too.Unlike some people, I don't get all caught up in languages and accents when it comes to movies as long as there is some sort of consistency. I don't fault movies made in the English-speaking world for using English as the common tongue.Read more ›

Anyone at all familiar with Anglo-Saxon literature, especially Beowulf, the Norse Sagas and the account of Ibn Fadlan, will quickly understand that this is a superior and intellectually sophisticated piece of creative film-making. Although it telescopes history from the 6th to about the 13th century, and throws in quite a chunk of what at best might have been folk-memory from a far earlier millenium, this doesn't bother me. It scores heavily in the accurate realization of the social values and fatalistic life philosophy of this period. Particularly good is the extreme pithiness of these Northeners' take on life. Let's be clear on this: these men were amazingly tough, but they weren't stupid, they were generous in spirit, and they had high concepts when it came to how a man should conduct himself. They just didn't believe in wasting words, or indulging in a lot of useless clever talk. They lived their lives in a harsh environment, at the very edge of a totally untamed natural world. The characters are excellently acted, and the direction is highly skilled. The location was effectively atmospheric, although a little too North American to be convincing --- the Denmark of Beowulf is in fact almost dead flat, although the idea of a cave behind a waterfall was imported from Iceland. The language question was very deftly handled. I didn't know they were speaking Gaelic, which somebody wrote, but they were certainly speaking Danish and Norwegian at times. Virtually all Northeners during this age could understand each other, although they would have spoken with varying accents. It seems tragic that the footage has obviously been mindlessly mutilated by what must have been a bunch of utter morons, the equivalent of all the dullards who have panned the film.Read more ›

Am I even watching the same movie?? I've been reading a lot of the reviews here about 13th Warrior. I was especially interested in people who gave it a bad review. While I agree with some of the points - it must have been cut because it gets choppy at times (as if there's a section missing which causes a loss of continuity and leaves questions and situations hanging out there) - I enjoyed this movie immensely! I've watched it many times and have never gotten tired of it. The warriors have beautiful horses too, which are a pleasure to watch! I'd LOVE to see a director's cut with deleted scenes and all the great extras so many DVD's have (such as Pirates of the Caribbean) - I'd have to buy more than one copy!.I originally bought the movie because I like Antonio Banderas in most of his movies, but I was very pleasantly surprised with the other actors - ESPECIALLY Vladimir Kulich (too bad he was in a mask in his role in the TV series Angel - he has such a great face), Dennis Storhoi, Dennis Southern, Tony Curran, and Clive Russell. These guys are excellent! Very different characters but equally entertaining. Other warriors (such as Neil Maffin) weren't in the movie enough to be able to form much of an opinion. But the story itself is great even if they did change it from the book (some of the changes are for the better). Yes, I did read the book too, and they could have fleshed the characters out more. But all in all, it's a very entertaining movie and one of my favorites to watch often. I liked it well enough to search out and buy a set of lobby cards from the movie, which I will display on my walls.As for the language discussions in the reviews - it's a MOVIE! Lighten up! Definitely 5 stars, even if there are scenes missing. MAKE A DIRECTOR'S CUT!!!!. We'll buy it!!